HANDSCART
- Pre-Seed
Amazon of Handmade products from the villages of developing nation and India. Connecting artisans and freelance individuals to customers directly by eliminating middle man and commission agent. We saving culture and indigenous art of India and other nation and bring you best handmade products from all over world.
We strongly believe that to spread message of crafts and culture we need to engage rural people. At rural level, we work with artisans and women's groups. Majority of artisans are subsistence farmers/work as daily wagers. With other livelihood opportunities available, and limited demand for handicrafts, pursuing their craft is not lucrative livelihood option. We work in collaboration with artisans and their communities to understand intricacies of their lives, their cultural heritage and the challenges they face in practising their craft. Interacting with communities helps us understand various social issues – like education for their children and health services.
My first exposure and in-depth understanding of crafts happened when I worked on UNESCO-Crafts Council project while pursuing MBA. The project gave me opportunity to interact with artisans and understand their struggles first-hand. All around me I saw culture rich with traditional values and crafts, but no takers. With livelihood opportunities through craft slowly dwindling, artisans were moving to alternative sources of income – like agriculture and daily wage labour,I realized that what was needed desperately was to revive art forms and spread awareness about them in the urban spaces and ensure that the artisans made decent living through crafts.
In the next three years, our project will aim to
evolve through Expanding our Reach, Entering New Partnerships, and Involving in
Art Advocacy.
a)Expand our reach:
-to remote villages and impact more families, and the community life.
-to national/international markets
-to various schools/colleges/universities for volunteer participation
b)Enter New Partnerships
-Through effective collaborations and partnerships, encourage rural
volunteering and internships
-Village Hospitality Services:During these visits, people would be exposed to
the culture of the village, and participate in community activities.
c)Involvement in Art Advocacy:
-Use traditional art/craft forms to address various social issues/for communication
Artisan with Products on e-commerce platform - 10000 Artisan impacted by 2018
For-Profit Social project aims to generate high revenue - Revenue crossing 3M mark
Opening hundreds of teaching stations where our Artisans will teach fellow people about the skills. - Rural woman and youth getting skills
- Lower middle income economies (between $1006 and $3975 GNI)
- Low-income economies (< $1005 GNI)
- Male
- Female
- Rural
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- Consumer-facing software (mobile applications, cloud services)
- Digital systems (machine learning, control systems, big data)
Working on United Nation sustainable model by educating and empowering rural communities through innovative technology and internet model, we have embedded the machine learning in our e-commerce platform to bring a better user-experience for our customers. We have a unique model which start from procuring raw material for artisans to make designer products and fast supply chain bring products from villages to customers door without extra charging.
Connecting Rural Communities Of Developing Countries With Our Education and Skill Development Model. Making Artisans and Unemployed Youth Self Developed and Communities Sustainable With UN SDG 11.
We provide markets to artisans in different cities amongst a variety of audiences.
Our e-commerce platform provides the Global marketplace to the artisans and Information about new trends, market evolution, better production techniques and tools are dispersed through seminars and information exchange workshops facilitated through experience sharing methods.
Through community/urban projects and art installations,we portray the arts in spaces with wide audience reach. This spreads visibility and awareness of the product and art form,and subsequently creates demand amidst consumers and corporates alike who invest in these ideas.
The e-commerce website is totally accessible to everyone across the globe with internet. with more than 15000+ products from well 500+ artisans on our website provides a unique option for our customers to have the craft which is not only low-cost but also highly unique and can't be easily found in the market.
- 9 (Commercial)
- For-Profit
- India
The project has been supported by reputed for-profit businesses, which strive to complete a social responsibility or are interested in a project to merge a business idea with a social message. We have previously worked with Coca-Cola India to promote the tribal art of warli, through their festive advertisement campaign. Pepsico brand, Nimbooz, supported our Kite Festival where we created Kites with images, talking about a concept. HCL Technologies has been a gifting partner with us for a year.
Our craft products are retailed to cities such as Bangalore and Pune and this helps us in creating a larger base for Indian crafts and increasing the interaction of these forms with the audiences. Also, we are now looking to raise $300000 for scaling.
There are many profit-based art galleries that have cropped up across cities in India. These galleries showcase the work of urban art enthusiasts practising traditional art forms. Most of their work is sold for high prices to the upper class urban audience. While this does help preserve and promote the craft form, it also takes away a potential chunk of income from the struggling rural artisan. This challenge can be overcome by collaborating with such art galleries and artists to raise funds for various art forms.
- 1 year
- We have already developed a pilot.
- 1-3 months
https://www.facebook.com/handscart
- Technology Access
- Human+Machine
- Financial Inclusion
- Income Generation
- Future of Work
Being a part of SOLVE, it provides an opportunity for us to scale our business. With an opportunity to meet the leading minds and the Investors at SOLVE, it provides us an opportunity to learn together with an opportunity to raise the seed amount of $300000 for expanding our operations in different countries that are rich in Art and craft.
1. Pepsico-Frito Lays
2. Pepsicos-Nimbooz
3. American Center
4. Italian Commerce chamber
5. HCL
6. World Merit
Okhai, Gaatha, Chanderiyaan, Dastkar Andhra

Founder and Operartion Head